Craig Carton

On September 6, 2017, Carton was arrested by federal agents at his home in New York City on criminal charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit those offenses. Carton, Michael Wright, Dean Heiser, and Joseph Meli are alleged to have run a Ponzi scheme that defrauded $4.8 million from investors by falsely claiming they had access to millions of dollars of concert tickets at face value through non-existent agreements with concert promoters. Although it was shown at trial that Carton had bought the tickets in question, he allegedly used some of the funds from a ticket investor to gamble with and only purchased the tickets in question at a later date, according to a parallel civil complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[15][16][17]

After receiving an indefinite suspension from WFAN, Carton resigned from the station on September 13, 2017, ending his ten-year stint as co-host of Boomer and Carton, leaving Esiason as the sole host. Carton said he made the decision to give his former show "the best opportunity to succeed without further disruption".[18] On March 29, 2018, Carton returned to radio as host of Carton & Friends on FNTSY Sports Network. In May 2018, Sports Byline USA acquired rights to syndicate the program on terrestrial radio.[19][20]

Carton was convicted November 7, 2018, in Manhattan federal court after a week long trial. Sentencing was scheduled for February 27, 2019,[21][22] before being delayed until March 15.[23] Ultimately, Carton was sentenced on April 5 to three and a half years in prison and ordered to make restitution of $4.8 million.[24] He reported to the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg minimum-security satellite camp on June 17, 2019, to begin serving a minimum 36 months of a maximum 42-month sentence.[25]

Carton was released from prison early on June 23, 2020.[26]

On October 29, 2020, it was announced that Carton would return to WFAN, hosting the afternoon drive Carton & Roberts with Evan Roberts (replacing the retiring Joe Benigno) beginning November 9.[27] On December 10, 2020, it was also announced that Carton would host a weekly program airing Saturday mornings beginning January 9, Hello, My Name is Craig, which will discuss problem gambling.[28]

• On February 28, 1997, Carton reported Philadelphia Flyers captain Eric Lindros had missed a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 15 due to being hung over, claiming the excuse the Flyers gave (a sore back) for Lindros missing the game was a cover-up. The Flyers immediately sued WIP,[29] resulting in an out-of-court settlement.

• In 2005, Carton became embroiled with an on-the-air feud with the then Governor of New Jersey, Richard Codey.[30] Carton made comments about Codey's wife Mary-Jo's battle with postpartum depression, prompting Codey himself to confront Carton in the studio. Carton would say "What Governor Codey ought to do is approve the use of medical marijuana so women can have a joint and relax instead of putting their babies in a microwave. Then all they want to do is cook Doritos. Women who claim they suffer from this postpartum depression ... they must be crazy in the first place."[31] Codey would go back to respond: "I wish I weren't governor, I'd take you out", but did not say he would challenge Carton to a fight. This was all done in the presence of his state trooper security staff.
• Also in 2005, Carton and his co-host Ray Rossi allegedly made numerous hostile and racist remarks directed towards then Edison mayoral candidate Jun Choi, as well as the Korean, Chinese and Indian populations of the Edison area.[32]
• In 2007 he was confronted by a Polish Holocaust survivor Paweł Zenon Woś, for propagating anti-Polish stereotypes.[33]

• On January 18, 2008, Carton walked the Brooklyn Bridge holding a sign reading "Any Given Sunday."[34] and wearing only a Speedo and New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey jersey[35] after betting the New York Giants would lose to the Dallas Cowboys in the 2008 NFL playoffs. He duplicated the stunt on January 8, 2010, after betting the New York Jets would miss the playoffs.[36]
• On May 28, 2013, the prologue to his book Loudmouth leaked. It begins with the second Brooklyn Bridge walk and it is rough on his "petty" co-workers Mike Francesa and Joe Benigno: "Joe [Benigno] had gone out of his way to be an asshole to us (Boomer and Carton) when we first started. Joe attacked because he thought he would ingratiate himself to Mike Francesa, the longtime afternoon show host who also, by his own admission, went out of his way to try to prevent us from being successful. In reality, Mike didn't give a shit what Joe thought, but he certainly cared about how the station was reacting to us..."[37]